One new trend in web design is animation. Animation is a huge area of web design and development. Almost every website has animation built in. Animations aren’t just GIF’s, but subtle movements you may have overlooked. According to New Media Campaign, animating certain elements of a website is good both for looks and for usability. Here are a few different ways you can animate your website.

Types of Animation

There are many different forms of animation, such as:

loading screen animations

navigation/menu animations

hover animations

slide animations

background animations

Navigation/menu animation is sometimes so subtle that users can easily miss it. If you click on a button that says “Menu” and the menu slides out from the side of the page, then that is animation. This interaction runs much smoother than say, being directed to another page or a drop down menu. Loading screen animations are a great way to keep users entertained while they wait for the site to load. If you keep it fun, users won’t get upset and leave. Hover animations work well to make your site interactive. For example, if a user brings the cursor over a picture, and it turns into a moving GIF, that is a great way to use hover animation.

Slideshows and other background animations are a great way to showcase your business or portfolio on your website. It will attract the attention of users to snapshots of your best work. The human eye is naturally attracted to motion, which is why a lot of portfolios include slideshows these days.

With these animation tips in mind, you can attract users with your site’s interactivity. People like entertainment, and animations are entertaining. Today, they are much easier to employ in website design than they used to be. So be sure to take advantage of this latest trend in your own site.